Google Assistant can help troubleshoot your Pixel 2 phone

Plenty of companies offer chat support to troubleshoot problems with your phone. But do you really want to talk to another human for what could be a simple fix? You don’t have to… if you have a Pixel 2. Android Police has discovered that you can ask Google Assistant for help with battery issues. Ask why your battery isn’t charging properly and the AI companion will not only run a diagnostics check, but look for particularly power-hungry apps. It offers to connect you to Google’s chat or phone support if it can’t answer your questions in one shot, although problems in the AP test suggest this component isn’t ready for prime time.

Collected news for everyone

AP tried the feature on a Pixel 2 XL running the Android 8.1 developer preview, but we got similar (not exact) responses using 8.0. This doesn’t work on other Android phones, though. And help for other issues is limited. We asked why our phone was slowing down, and it pointed us to a “more info” link.

We’ve asked Google if it can comment on the feature. However, it’s reasonable to believe that this AI support could become more robust over time. If Google can point you to Assistant for help with numerous issues, it potentially lightens the load for flesh-and-blood support reps by limiting their involvement to trickier problems.